My Name My Story (MNMS) is a Youth Led Social Leadership Organization that inspires Empathy and in Young Leaders.All actions of the organization are aligned with the philosophy of “Hope – Believe – Succeed –Inspire”Our Goal: To have a MNMS School Club in Every School Across the world that are making empathy "cool" and One Million Stories that Inspire.We operate MNMS with a couple of foundational beliefs:- When youth talk to youth, they listen.- You cannot hate someone whose story you know. - Today’s youth have a lot of energy, we can direct that energy that may otherwise have gone into something unproductive, and turn it into something positive. - We believe that words have power, and therefore we use positive words in our messaging. Therefore, we do NOT typically run campaigns that are ‘anti-this’ or ‘anti-that.’ We focus on words that make a positive impact, words like Unity, Tolerance, Hope, Believe, Succeed and Inspire.- Empathy cannot be taught, it has to be 'caught'

Frequently Asked Questions:What is My Name My Story (MNMS)?My Name My Story (MNMS) is a social leadership organization that “Inspires Empathy in Young Leaders.”

Who is the Founder?MNMS was founded in Dec 2011 by, then 14 year old, Amit Dodani. You can read his own story by visiting Amit's Story.

Who is on the MNMS Team?MNMS is lead by Amit, backed by the MNMS National Youth Leaders and the MNMS Advisory team. The advisory board consists of individuals with years of experience in education, interfaith studies, social enterprise, finance and marketing. We also constantly seek mentorship from some of the top Social Entrepreneurs and thought leaders in the country.

Why does MNMS Inspire Empathy?At MNMS we believe the lack of empathy is the root cause of a lot of the issues faced by the youth today. We truly believe that a community that is focused on “empathy” at it’s core will start chipping away at issues like bullying, suicide, drug abuse, drop out rate and countless other issues arising from the lack of connectivity in the community. How does MNMS define empathy? The most popular definition of empathy is to see someone else’s perspective by stepping into their shoes. We take that a step further, and truly believe that when you understand empathy it changes the understanding of yourself and those around you. Finally we believe that empathy can be inspired in a community through: Storytelling, Teamwork, Leadership and Service. How does MNMS “Inspire Empathy”? We take a graduated approach to introducing empathy to the youth. Our goal is to progressively introduce the concept of empathy to the youth and make caring, empathy and service “cool.”

What is the programming offered by MNMS? We offer different levels of engagement for an individual, schools or community to “inspire empathy” Level 1: Stories on the MNMS website and social channels. This allows the stories of young leaders changing the world to be shared through the MNMS social networks. This works towards our goal to have “One Million Stories that Inspire” and spreads the story of youth being positive contributors to society, diluting existing biases. Level 2: MNMS School Club on a school campus. This level of leadership where a MNMS Chapter is founded on the school campus, the club is lead by the youth and supervised by a adult proctor. Our program is designed to impact upper middle school, high schools and even college campuses. The clubs are provided a comprehensive MNMS Resource Guide that empowers and inspires students through storytelling, teamwork, leadership and service. Level 3: Inspire Empathy Keynote. This programming is offered to high schools and youth organizations that are looking to introduce the concept of “inspiring empathy” within their community. MNMS founder, Amit Dodani, delivers a compelling keynote through his own story, inspiring attendees to take time to understand someone else’s story and the power of unity in a community. Level 4: Inspire Empathy Day. This workshop like programming is offered to schools as a full day event. Participants are taken through a journey of self discovery, engage in activities that create unity and participants walk away empowered and inspired to work together on a cause bigger than themselves. Level 5: MNMS Social Entrepreneurship Camp for Young Changemakers. This is the highest level of programming that MNMS currently offers introducing campers to the concept of Social Entrepreneurship, equipping them to take their passions into action. This powerful week long camp features curriculum that has been developed by the MNMS Team in collaboration with our strategic partners, like Ashoka and Peace First. Youth social entrepreneurs and adult thought leaders teach campers through activities and workshops covering topics like: self-discovery, empathy, social entrepreneurship, business canvas, leadership styles, communication skills, all in a fun and interactive style!

How can I be a part of the MNMS Movement?You can participate as a MNMS Leader in an officially licensed MNMS School Club. What does a MNMS School Club Do?A MNMS School Club involves students, faculty and the community in the spirit of "inspiring the next generation of leaders" and all actions of the school club are aligned with the philosophy of "Hope - Believe - Succeed - Inspire"The School Club operates under a limited license from MNMS, and using MNMS School Club Resource Guide to establish their goal for the year to lead at-least one MNMS Activity in their school and one to serve the local community.

Why "Hope - Believe - Succeed - Inspire"?We believe that a spark of HOPE that is fanned by an empathetic community instills confidence for someone to BELIEVE. Once that person believes in themselves and surrounds themselves with a positive peer group, they can SUCCEED. Once that success is attained, we believe by telling stories of their journey they are able to INSPIRE in others that spark of HOPE to continue the circle of life.

"We already have 'anti-bullying' type programs in our school, why should I even consider MNMS?" What makes the MNMS program unique? “I have been going to a school since middle school with a tremendous emphasis on Diversity, Acceptance and some National Anti-Bullying programs in place. But as I grew up I realized that most of my fellow students almost tuned off "anti-bullying" programs. Because they were either not being bullied or were not bullies themselves! They also felt that some of the programs represented themselves with "hate & anger," "it was not their thing" and the word "bully" was being used so much that it had really lost its true meaning. At the same time, I also realized that most of us who were involved in group activities and clubs were the most united group of students.” Amit Dodani, Founder, MNMS. So as we developed My Name My Story, the entire focus was to make this an organization that would solve the same problem but engage the entire student body, school & community. We knew we had to create to create “connectivity in the community” to solve this epidemic. Hence a MNMS Club "inspires empathy and unity" rather than focus its effort on issues through "anti-bullying" because we believe that bullying is the "symptom" and, "Inspiring Empathy" is focusing on the cause - which is the "lack of empathy" that actually causes issues like bullying. Here are some of the assumptions we made.- Schools are tired of anti-buying programs that do not work. They are ready to work with a program that engages their students and entire faculty to deal with this epidemic.- Teens will continue to be the trendsetters in the social media sphere.- Parents are interested to expose their children to organizations that are interested in the triple bottom line of people, product & profit.- When youth talk to youth, they listen more, believe more and do more.- We believe that words have power, and we use positive words in our messaging. Therefore, we do NOT typically run campaigns that are ‘anti-this’ or ‘anti-that.’ We focus on words that make a positive impact, words like Unity, Hope, Believe, Succeed and Inspire. Our theory was validated again recently in an article that Ashoka also tweeted, School Anti-Bullying programs In-Effective, Sept 06 2013, Marc Bracket & Diane Divecha. Although we at MNMS realize there is a clear need for programs that support the bullied and helps them deal with bullies - at MNMS we continue to focus on the cause, i.e. "the lack of empathy." The foundation of all our “MNMS Activities” embrace the teaching of Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, who explains that empathy is built through “teamwork, service and leadership.”We have had a chance to take our assumptions through MNMS from the Alpha stage, to the Beta stage, to today, where we feel we have a curriculum and program that is making an impact. Although we still have a lot to learn, but we are excited where we are and where we are going. - We have MNMS School Club Founding Leaders with hundreds of club members in schools and even a college club with the ability to impact thousands of students in schools across the country - Most of the clubs have reported some of the highest interest rate from student and faculty. The most amazing part about our club registration is that we have students from Honors Clubs, Robotics, Athletes & Environmental clubs all becoming part of our MNMS Clubs. We believe this is because MNMS is opening the funnel to all students and we do not label our selves as an "anti" club. - MNMS Activities are currently being embraced schools and we have students leading MNMS Activities and a host of other ways to get students involved in teamwork, leadership and service. - Our Inspire Empathy Keyontes are being well received across campuses. - And finally our campaigns: We believe that words have power, and therefore we use positive words in our messaging. Therefore, we do NOT typically run campaigns that are ‘anti-this’ or ‘anti-that.’ We focus on words that make a positive impact, words like Unity, Peace, Hope, Believe, Succeed and Inspire. As we collect feedback on our programs through surveys and we continue to receive story after story of students who have been impacted in an amazing way. So at My Name My Story, we believe: - We, as a society, must focus on inspiring empathy in the school. - The effort should be student led. (Obviously, supervised by a teacher and proctor.) - We should engage the entire school and be an inclusive organization. - Empathy cannot be taught - it has to be caught.What sort of organization is My Name My Story?My Name My Story is operated as a for-profit social enterprise. Although these sort of organizations have been around since 1960's, the term "social entrepreneur" started gaining recognition with the promotion by Bill Drayton of Ashoka. Today Ashoka identifies and supports social entrepreneurs across 70 countries. Since this is still considered a relatively new way of operating a social organization, allow us to give you some background and reason why we chose to operate as a "Social Enterprise."Bill Drayton from Ashoka says, "Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry." David Bornstein, author of How to Change the world: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Idea says, "Social entrepreneurs identify resources where people only see problems. They view the villagers as the solution, not the passive beneficiary. They begin with the assumption of competence and unleash resources in the communities they're serving."These sort of organizations have grown in the recent years, with colleges like Stanford doing studies for newer model for social entrepreneurs:"In the aftermath of the recent economic crisis, the global economic system is still regarded as broken. Calls for reform have been particularly strong among youth. Vast unemployment, ballooning debt, and entrenched inequality have left a generation of young people frustrated with modern capitalism and motivated to change it. Among the voices for reform, hybrid social entrepreneurs are opening the way for a reformulation of the current economic order, combining the principles, practices, and logics of modern capitalism with more inclusive humanitarian ideals. This hybrid organization is fully integrated—everything it does produces both social value and commercial revenue.This vision has at least two powerful features: managers do not face a choice between mission and profit, because these aims are integrated in the same strategy.Traditional businesses usually think of their consumers as customers, whereas traditional nonprofits think of their consumers as beneficiaries. Hybrids, however, break this traditional customer-beneficiary dichotomy by providing products and services that, when consumed, produce social value. When consumption yields both revenue and social value, customers and beneficiaries may be indistinguishable. This kind of intergration is powerful, in part because it resolves the deeply felt tension between mission and growth. When customers and beneficiaries are the same, focusing on growth doesn't take away resources from beneficiaries; rather growth and fulfillment of mission are inseparable.

There is a diminishing availability of support for traditional non-profits, hundreds of brilliant social ideas starve and disappear every year, since a smaller but specialized infrastructure of national and community foundations, early stage fellowship grantors, and venture philanthropists exists to provide funding to the nonprofit sector.On the other hand, the for-profit sector has sophisticated vehicles for financing through angel investors and venture capitalists."So, after carefully evaluating our mission, options and future goals, we have decided to operate as a Social Enterprise, a hybrid social organization, allowing us to grow and scale our impact to the level we aspire to.

The MNMS Story.Why and How MNMS was created. As told by 14 year old Amit Dodani, Founder of MNMS:Throughout my childhood, I was unable to possess any sort of self-confidence because of a speech problem that I had. But everything changed when I tried out for Mock Trial and Debate at my Middle School. The coaches, probably knew about my speech issue, but they did not judge me. They believed in me even when I did not believe in myself. Over the course of the season, we ended up winning at countless Mock Trial and Debate Tournaments.

By the time I entered high school, people thought I was born with a natural talent for speaking. When I told them my story, they were shocked and inspired. That was when I realized that society needed a platform that tells the “full” story.

My Name My Story (MNMS) was created to fill a gap: a gap of inspiration in the future leaders of this world. We believe that the future of the world depends not only on a few leaders that are inspired, but nations of inspired leaders. We also believe that the current socio-political environment has created an environment of fear and despair in the hearts of our future leaders. That is why we go across the globe to find "MyStories": stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. So, success, once a mystical elusive word, is no longer a secret and the next generation of leaders too can hope, believe, succeed and inspire.

The Stories featured on MNMS are real stories of people. Some may be of a co-worker, a fellow student, your team coach or some may be the story of your neighbor. With all these stories we have one mission as you experience them: we want you to live an inspired life and instill empathy and unity in the community.

The initial days of getting MNMS off the ground were not easy. My parents and my younger brother have stood by me and helped me build my dream. They have been the ray of light in the valleys, and kept me humble during our peaks.

We experienced our first peak on February 15th, when Yahoo! News picked up our press release. That was a turning point for the organization. Since then, we have been blessed with thousands of unique visitors from across the USA and from around the world.

Today, we have passionate MNMS Leaders and school clubs, across the country and we have been blessed to be recognized by community leaders and the press. I truly believe empathy cannot be forced, it has to be cultivated. So I sincerely believe that we are “the storytellers of the world.” And in a time of great despair, division and tension our goal is to inspire you, touch your heart, challenge you, stretch you and let you know that the world is a friendly place, and YOU can make a difference! So very soon we can hear these words from YOU at MNMS "Hi I'm __, you know MyName, this is MyStory..."